Effective microscopic theory of quantum dot superlattice solar cells

Abstract

We introduce a quantum dot orbital tight-binding non-equilibrium Green's function approach for the simulation of novel solar cell devices where both absorption and conduction are mediated by quantum dot states. By the use of basis states localized on the quantum dots, the computational real space mesh of the Green's function is coarse-grained from atomic resolution to the quantum dot spacing, which enables the simulation of extended devices consisting of many quantum dot layers.